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After five years sitting under a dark cloud of asbestos-related litigation, scaffolding specialist Cape has now drawn a line under the matter with a final provision of ?74m. What's more, the company plans to pay dividends again this year.Strip out exceptional charges and Cape turned in a resilient performance last year, with underlying pre-tax profits and EPS both up 25 per cent to ?60.7m and 37.5p respectively. However, it did not escape the downturn unscathed with pricing under pressure, the mature domestic market flat and its Australian operation suffering from the weighting to sectors badly affected by the downturn such as commercial and residential construction and mining services. These are expected to stay soft this year but overall orders in the region are picking up and it's the same story in the UK, underpinned by good demand for offshore services.
The growth came from Cape's strong presence in the Middle East which has really paid off with operating profits in the region up two-thirds to ?38.6m. Tendering continues to increase there and overall order books are also encouraging. So Numis Securities has moved its 2010 forecasts up a shade and now expects adjusted pre-tax profits of ?62m with EPS of 37.2p.
Source: Investors Chronicle
The growth came from Cape's strong presence in the Middle East which has really paid off with operating profits in the region up two-thirds to ?38.6m. Tendering continues to increase there and overall order books are also encouraging. So Numis Securities has moved its 2010 forecasts up a shade and now expects adjusted pre-tax profits of ?62m with EPS of 37.2p.
Source: Investors Chronicle